Senate committee quizzes 2 nominees for federal court in NY's Eastern District

WASHINGTON — Two women nominated for judgeships on the federal district court in New York covering Long Island faced tough Republican questioning but also Democrats’ celebration in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

If confirmed for the Eastern District of New York courts, Nusrat Choudhury, an ACLU attorney, would become the first Bangladeshi and first Muslim woman on a U.S. federal court and Natasha Merle, an NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyer, would become the fourth Black woman on the district court.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced Choudhury by calling her “a history maker” and said that as the daughter of immigrants “her life, her family, and her career is a shining example of the American Dream.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced Merle, highlighting her work for voting rights and racial equality and noting that she would bring the first experience as a former federal public defender to the district court in nearly 30 years.

Both nominees represent President Joe Biden’s attempt to diversify the federal courts by choosing more women and more nominees with backgrounds from a wide expanse of ethnic, racial and religious groups to become district and circuit judges.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) celebrated the fact that the committee would hold a hearing on two Black women to sit on federal circuit courts and three women — Black, Bangladeshi and Latina — for seats on federal district courts.

“There's just never been a day like this in all of America, where we've had two panels that represents such extraordinary diversity,” he said of the committee’s separate questioning of the circuit and district court nominees.

Yet few, if any Republicans appear likely to vote for either candidate, a possibility acknowledged by Democrats, who anticipate they will be able to hold their caucus together to confirm them with the help of the vice president if necessary.

A handful of Republican senators on the committee signaled opposition in their grilling of Choudhury, Merle and Nancy Abudu, the director of strategic litigation for the Southern Poverty Law Center, who is nominated to become the first Black woman on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) repeatedly pressed Merle about her statement in 2017 that "its inconsistent to denounce white supremacy but not repudiate voter ID law.” When she declined to say if she held that as a personal view, he said, “I don't appreciate you dodging my question.”

Kennedy also sought to pin down Choudhury for a statement at a Princeton panel in 2015 that “the killing of unarmed Black men by police happens every day in America.” Choudhury responded she said it as “rhetorical advocacy.”

Republicans gave a pass to Ana Isabel de Alba, a nominee to be a federal district court judge in the Eastern District of California, and expressed support for South Carolina’s U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was passed over for the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Republican senators characterized Abudu, Choudhury and Merle as extremist advocates who are anti-police and soft on crime and who don’t know the difference in being an advocate and being a judge, said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias.

“However, all three nominees repeated at least 10 times each that they understood the difference and would faithfully apply the Supreme Court precedents,” Tobias told Newsday in an email. “If the Dem majority holds together and stays well, they can confirm the nominees.”